Las Vegas in the 1950s saw a strange mix of nuclear weapons and showgirls, with beauty pageant winners given nicknames like “Miss A-Bomb” and “Miss Atomic Blast”. The public was fascinated by the nuclear tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site, and beauty queens were crowned in conjunction with atomic test programs.
In the 1950s, in the “anything goes” city of Las Vegas, the atomic bomb and the so-called blonde (or brown) bombshells came together in a strange mix of popular culture and weapons of mass destruction. At the time, the public was fascinated by the nuclear tests underway at the Nevada Test Site, and tourists visited nearby Las Vegas, where there was never a shortage of showgirls, to embrace this new form of raw energy. So, after Paula Harris was declared Miss North Las Vegas in the 1953 beauty pageant, her nickname, not surprisingly, became Miss A-Bomb.
Back when life was a blast:
But Harris wasn’t the first atomic pin-up. Candyce King appeared on May 9, 1952 in the Dixon (Illinois) Evening Telegraph and Statesville (NC) Day Record as Miss Atomic Blast.
In 1955, an atomic test program called Operation Cue attracted attention when it was delayed several times due to high winds. In May of that year, Linda Lawson was crowned Miss Cue and her crown was shaped like a mushroom cloud.
Lee A. Merlin was crowned Miss Atomic Bomb in conjunction with the series of nuclear tests known as Operation Plumbbob in 1957. Merlin, the ultimate atomic beauty queen, wore a cotton “mushroom cloud” attached to the front of her swimming suit.
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